The Public Service Department (PSD) or Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) today announced its opening of JPA Scholarship 2008, encompassing both the local and oversea studies. Students who obtain 10 1As in the SPM 2007 whose family income does not exceed RM1,500 monthly will be automatically given a JPA Scholarship. However, they will still need to fulfil the criteria for the Oversea Scholarship Program (for those under the oversea scholarship program), as well as undergo the interview process.
JPA has also reminded those who wish to pursue their studies with the JPA Scholarship must not only excel in academic, but active in extra curricular activities and possess strong leadership skill. Just to give you idea how competitive this scholarship is, they were 12,499 applications for the last year’s scholarship, out of which 746 were those who obtained 1A in all of the subjects taken. The total number of students sitting for SPM 2007 is higher than that of 2006 by some over 1000 margins.
The following is the excerpt of translation of JPA’s press release from the original Malay version. (To get the Malay version, click here - it is in PDF file format).
1. Number of scholarships
The government through the Public Service Department (PSD or JPA - Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam) offers scholarship opportunity to selected students to pursue higher education for their first degree. The scholarship opportunity is continually extended for the year 2008 with focus on critical fields such as Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Engineering, Science & Technology as well as Social Science to cater the employment needs of the public and private sectors.
Aligned with the implementation of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) and the human capital development in the selected fields, the government has added a further 200 scholarship opportunities which increases the total scholarships provided for 2008 to 2000. An amount of RM1.74 billion was allocated for this year’s scholarship provision.
2. Requirements and criteria
The principle requirements for the JPA Scholarship award are outlined as below:
- Open to SPM leavers with excellent academic results
- Not exceeding 18 years old (19 years for transition students i.e. peralihan) as of 31 December 2007
- Candidates will go through interview process
- Successful candidates will undergo preparation program at designated institutions
Criteria used to measure candidate’s eligibility:
- Academic results
- Involvement in extra curricular activities
- Interview performance
- Family and socio-economic background
It is worth to note that a student who scored 9 1As with active involvement in extra curricular activities will be given preference than a student with 15 1As but is not active in extra curricular. Also, again, priority will be also given to students who come from the family with lower financial capability.
3. Application method
Scholarship form is available online at www.jpa.gov.my. No fee is incurred for applications and application can be submitted once the SPM results are out. The advertisement for the scholarship opportunity is provided in the website. Additionally, advertisements will also be put on major local newspapers on the 9th, 10th, 12th and 16th March 2008.
For inquiries about the scholarship, you can call 03-8885 3412 beginning this Monday (10 March 2008) or attend the JPA ‘Together With Customers’ program every last Friday of the month at the lobby of Block C2, Putrajaya Administrative Center, from 8am to 12pm.
